Layer 3: Zone Wide Rare often used for achievements or treasures dropper. Will also use layer 3 in towns and non-aggressive zones to isolate layer 1 from been over crowded. Making them often hard to read. In that case, guild masters and spell/disc vendors will be moved there.

Fanra's EQ map pack 2013-10-08 - This is my collection of maps for EQ. None of these maps were created by me. What I did was collect the best maps out there (as far as I can tell) and put them into this pack. It includes all maps up to October 8, 2013. See the readme.txt file (also in the pack) for more info. (Credit: Mapfiend.net, Rasper, Beimeith, and Caudyr for many of the maps)

When you enter a zone, the current map will automatically update to the current zone. The Atlas is a full-color interactive map of the world that can be used to point-and-click from a world view, to a continent view, to a zone view of the maps regardless of which zone you are located. It's very useful for planning your travels.

Your character's location on the map is designated by an arrow symbol. The arrow indicates the direction that your character is facing.

Customized maps can be created for most zones. However, there may be some zones that restrict access of making a map.

Moving the Map - You can move the view of the map around using the scroll and + and - buttons or you can use the mouse.

These buttons allow you to scroll up, down, left, or right. Click in the middle of this area to center the map.

These buttons allow you to zoom in and out.

To use the mouse to move the map, hold down the left mouse button while over the map area, then you can drag the map around. Use the Mouse Wheel to zoom in and out.

Group - The Group button toggles the display of group members in the current zone.

Layers - Each zone map has four layers. The first layer is reserved for default maps that we provide. You can create three additional layers for your maps. You will be able to turn on or off any of these map layers in any combination.

Visible - This determines which layers are visible.

Base – The base layer is the default map for the zone.

1 2 3 – This lets you view custom layers that you make.

If you make a custom map and don't want the default map to show, make sure Base is not depressed.

Active - This determines which layer is active 1, 2 or 3. You can only have 1 active layer at a time.

Labels - This toggles displaying of labels on and off.

Labels can be used to enhance your maps. They are markers (a "+" symbol) with text attached. You can choose the color for the label text as well as one of three text sizes. Labels can be edited or removed easily, and you can toggle labels on and off.

Height Filter - With this you can toggle filtering lines based on your position and the high and low values.

Low - How much below your current position to draw map lines.

High - How much above your current position to draw map lines.

You can use the Height Filter to filter out parts of the map that are above or below a certain level relative to your character.

When the Height Filter turned off, the entire map will be displayed. If the Height Filter is turned on the map will only display the number of units above (High) and below (Low) the character. You can set the Low and High setting to the numbers that suit you best. In some locations, such as tall buildings or towers, levels of the map too far above or below you aren't really useful, and may be very confusing so the Height Filter will help you to only display what is near you. The default settings for High and Low is 10.

Current - If you use the Atlas to scout out different zones, this button will reset the map to the current zone.

When drawing maps, you can go to one location, mark that as a starting point for a line, then move to another and mark the end of the line. A line will be drawn between those two points. Or you can draw continuous lines by starting a line and moving around adding points as you go until you choose to end the line. You can also turn on the automatic mode that will start the line where you are and add new points every time your character changes directions until you choose to end the line.

Here's a brief description of how each of the buttons on the Map Toolbar work:

Start Line - Set down a point where your character is standing. Press the End Line button to finish the line.

End Line - Set down a point where your character is standing, and end the line.

Add Point - Add a point onto the current map where your character is standing. This is useful for making turns in a line.

Remove Line - Cut out the currently highlighted map line. To remove a line, you need to click on it in the map area. Once it is highlighted, you can use this button to remove it.

Set Line Color - Change the current color of the highlighted map line. The default maps use the following convention for colors:

Terrain:

Outside walls = Black (0,0,0)

Water = Blue (0,0,255)

Grass = Green (0,125,0)

Sand/dirt = Light Brown (150,100,0)

Stone = Gray (200,200,200)

Wood = Dark Brown (100,50,0)

Paths/roads Inside towns = Light Blue (0, 150, 255)

Paths/roads outside towns = Light Brown (150,100,0)

Zone Lines, Teleporting Pads = Purple (150,0,200)

Objects:

Portals (wizard spires and such) = Gray (125,125,125)

Wood = Dark Brown (100,50,0)

Stone = Gray (200, 200, 200)

Join At Intersect - Find the intersection point of two selected lines and extend the lines to meet at that point. Holding Control down when clicking this button will adjust only the first selected line.

Auto Map - Adds points to a line when you change direction.

Add Label - Add a text label to the map. This allows you to mark a spot on the map that you feel is important. Generally this is done to mark a spot where an NPC.

DO use a potion or spell to shrink yourself. The smaller you are the closer you can get to the location of the wall or object you are mapping out.

DON'T use illusions. When you use illusions in combination with shrinking too close to zone boundaries or objects, you can sometimes get stuck.

DO Duck! Ducking can be your friend when mapping. Ducking helps you slow down. Some buildings have many turns to them so you'll want to go as slow as possible when mapping those areas.

DON'T Run! Slow down, you're moving too fast! Turn off run, cancel speed spells, etc. If you move too fast, you won't catch the details of buildings, terrain, etc. However, if you are mapping a dangerous area, you may want to skip trying to put in too many details.

DO use invisibility – Being a cartographer can be a dangerous task. You'll want to use some form of invisibility to map out locations. However, this may not always be possible.

DON'T use levitation. See height filter above!

DO save often. There's nothing worse than click click clicking your way around adding points, lines and labels and then you lose it all because you didn't save it.

where, -X0 is starting X position reversed sign from in-game E/W direction (2nd number in in-game /loc), -Y0 is starting Y position reversed sign from in-game N/S direction (1st number in the in-game /loc), and Z0 is starting elevation (same as 3rd number in in-game /loc), X1, Y1, Z1, are similar but the ending positions, R, G, B are the 0-255 color values for the line.

Labels are:

P -X, -Y, Z, R, G, B, S, Text

where, X, Y, and Z are similar to X0, Y0, and Z0 above; R, G, B same as above, S is size of text from 1-3, and Text is the label

As an example, say some website gives the in-game location of an NPC named John Doe as +155, -411, +15, then to add a Large Dark Blue Label of his name, you'd put the following line in the appropriate map file:
P 411, -155, 15, 0, 0, 128, 3, John_Doe

Note how, the first sets of in-game nubmers[sic] get swapped, and their signs get reversed in the map file.

SOE used to have a way to submit your maps to them. If they liked your map, it would be added into the game.

However, they no longer have this program.

The following information on submitting maps to SOE is left here only for historical purposes.

“

Hello Fellow Norrathians!

To coordinate with our Free-To-Play Launch, we are offering a great opportunity to our players to put your mark inside the game! Many Maps have been created over the years and we are looking for the best map makers out there to submit your work to the EverQuest Team and if we like your map, we will include it with download of the game.

To thank you for the great work on making the maps that we select, we will include your Name (Character Name) and Server Name on the Map as a small token of our appreciation.

We thank you for being part of the community and for sharing your map skills with the rest of Norrath!